I'm worried about finding a new job

There is a distinct possibility that the fiance and I may be moving for his job. I'm just worried that I won't be able to find one.

The media job market is a war zone right now and I'm really lucky to have the job that I have now. If I willingly give it up, I don't think I'll be able to find another one in any media field, not just reporting.

According to some reports on Poynter, the media job market is pretty bleak. The key to getting a job in this market is being flexible about where you can move to. That's not an option for me as we have to go where the fiance gets a job.

I agree that we really need to focus on his career right now as he is just graduating, but I'm sad that I will probably have to leave my job and won't be able to get another one.

This sucks.

Anyone having the same problem? What do you do when the spouse gets an awesome job, but you can't?

Online events calendar is driving me crazy

At my paper we use an online events calendar. Folks can go to this site, which is connected to our main page, and enter events. It's a great site because it helps us keep track of what is going on around town. I use it some to write my weekly entertainment column. It also generates our print calendars automatically.

The only problem is, a staffer has to approve the events. We usually have to edit the events for AP style as well. There are a lot of mistakes!

Well, as a very junior staffer, someone decided that I had the time to do this. I really don't. The person in charge of this site is half-way across the country. There are only a few other people that handle event approvals for this site. They all have very demanding full-time jobs as well. One is out on paternity leave.

We get these pleading emails from the site manager several times a day. I hate to tell her that with all the layoffs and the deluge of events for the holiday season, we're going to need some more help or someone is going to have to start pulling some major overtime.

Does anyone else have a similar problem? What do you do when someone goes on vacation?

Trying to go on vacation

For those of you in the news biz, you already know, getting unshackled from your desk to go on vacation can be a pain.

My newspaper company instituted a policy this year that we can't roll over PTO (paid time off) days from year to year. Has anyone else's company done this? They told us this in May. It's going to save the company bunches of money, so I have no problem there. But I do have 13 days to burn off before the end of the year.

The fiance and I planned a super vacay. We'll be going home to Texas for a week and up to Colorado for a little skiing for a week. The only problem is getting unchained from this desk long enough to do it. Apparently, it's an unspoken rule that folks only take a week off during December. Well, no one told me. And I worked Christmas last year, so it's time for a little time off.

But I have to do a ton of advance copy to run while I'm gone. Do other industries have this problem? I feel like I'm killing myself so I can go on vacation. Let me be clear, I'm not harping on my employer. These features need to run every week or readers get upset. I'm one of two people at the paper that knows how to put them together and the other guy is on paternity leave.

Well, I'm going to get back to it. I need to compile real estate pages for the weeks I'm going to be gone.